Nailing the physics of a negative mass planet

Another question about my exotic matter planet. I mentioned floating landmasses via anti-gravity and exotic matter mining, but I recently read this:

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/fact-and-fiction-about-negative-mass

And was thusly educated. Turns out nothing will float, negative mass or not, unless you're on a negative mass planet. Thankfully, my story has a compromise. A planet whose crust contains a significant amount of negative mass exotic matter.

So if I want to obey the limitations laid out in that article, here are the rules and limitations I will have to have on my planet:

-Floating hills and mountains are not made of exotic matter themselves, they just float above vast underground reserves of exotic matter that act like the carpet described in the article, levitating the landmass.

-Safety protocols for handling exotic matter include never throwing it or dropping it from large heights so it can't build up enough speed to burrow through whatever material is in its way at a significant speed. If handled properly, and placed delicately on to a flat surface or container, it will not pierce the material for a long time. Conversely, if thrown or indeed fashioned into a bullet, it'll push through anything in its way at a rate relative to its velocity, eventually falling towards the planet, downwards, and exiting the other side of the planet at escape velocity.

-Never pair up a lump of negative mass with an equal but opposite lump of positive mass, as they will push against and accelerate each other at increasingly high speeds.

Does that sound about right as far as how I should realistically handle negative mass?

posted over 8 years ago

Z.Schroeder‭

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